Masterful Larrechea kicks Sale to victory

Phillipe Saint-Andre could barely conceal his relief after Sale returned to winning ways with a 17-12 victory against Guinness Premiership rivals

Harlequins.

Successive defeats at the hands of Bristol and Newcastle last week were depressing enough for the Sharks' director of rugby before the triple injury blow which has left Charlie Hodgson, Jason White and Andrew Sheridan sidelined for the rest of the season.

But Saint-Andre's players ground out a hard-earned victory after surviving a second-half fightback from Quins.

He said: "It was a very important win and you could see that the confidence was not very high. Last week was bad against Newcastle and you could see how that affected us when Daniel Larrechea missed an early penalty and then we had two or three opportunities to score a try.

"We didn't finish them but we showed a lot of character and we managed to win - and I think we deserved to win."

Sale's squad has been decimated by injury and international call-ups and they suffered a further blow tonight with Nathan Bonner-Evans suffering a suspected broken finger.

"We were missing 18 players but Chris Jones and Mark Cueto and the two Lobbe brothers (Ignacio Fernandez and Juan Martin Fernandez) will be back from Argentina," said Saint-Andre.

"Elvis Seveali'i and Stuart Turner will also be available next week for Llanelli in the EDF Energy Cup."

Frenchman Larrechea produced a masterful display from fly-half to help ease the Sharks into a 14-3 interval lead with a drop-goal and two penalties while Magnus Lund crossed the line to end the reigning champions' three-match try drought.

Dean Richards' men hit back in the second half when Adrian Jarvis added to his first-half penalty with three further goals to reduce the deficit to two points. But Larrechea's third penalty of the game saw Sale home and dry.

Richards' side claimed a bonus point but the former England number eight was left to bemoan a wretched first-half display.

Quins had won their previous three matches but Richards said: "It was a very poor first-half performance and everybody is disappointed with that.

"We gifted them a try through our own errors and I don't think we adapted particularly well to the conditions.

"There were too many unforced errors and going in at 14-3 at half-time we felt we should have come back and won.

"However, I don't think we got the rub of the green from the referee. We thought he gave too many decisions on one side and not on the other."